Renovating: Tips on how to get a better selling price for your home

Renovating: Tips on how to get a better selling price for your home

Renovating your home can be both stressful and rewarding. But renovating specifically to sell is something else entirely.

You might ask yourself…

How do we renovate a house for an unknown buyer?

What will increase the sale price the most?

Where should I spend my hard-earned money?

Luckily we have renovation expert and owner of Colour Perfect Decorating Michael Pickering to answer all our questions.

Mick has over 25 years of experience in both renovations and painting, and knows what potential buyers are really looking for in a home.

So firstly, Mick – how much should someone put into renovations?

To renovate a whole house with granite kitchens, new lights, carpets,tiles, and new bathrooms can cost as low as $40,000 from the auction, provided you do most of the work yourself. So you can give a high finish with out over capitalising, and really add to the sale price.

OK great. So which areas of the house should a renovator focus on to add the most to the resale value?

By far, the most value is added by renovating kitchens and bathrooms.

How effective can a new paint job be on transforming the feel and look of a house?

A paint job is very important if it’s done by a professional. It has the ability to completely change a dull house into a sellable home instantly, and is relatively cheap considering the impact on the sale price.

Which colors would you recommend to renovators, to appeal to the widest range of potential buyers?

Neutral colours definitely work the best. White ceilings, white doors and pale cream frames are very popular, but the in colour at the moment is light grey.

What are common traits people are looking for in a new house, and how can we achieve this through renovations?

Most people want to move in without having to do anything to the house, so a high finish really commands a premium. While this doesn’t relate to the real lower end of the market, it makes the sale a whole lot easier.

How important is lighting to compliment renovations and painting?

Lighting is very important, with LED lighting being especially popular. People like them because they’re eco friendly and much more energy efficient than the older style globes.

Are there any problematic types of renovations you should avoid when renovating to sell?

The renovations to avoid are when the neighbor’s houses are in terrible state. This means no matter how hard you work on making a house look great, people will drive on by regardless. It would be much more cost effective to renovate a cheaper house in a nicer area, than to spend all your money on renovating the nicest house in a cheaper area, and not getting the return on your investment.

How do you balance the personal style of the person undertaking renovations, without putting off prospective buyers?

It’s best to stick with neutral colours when painting, and add a bit of class in picking your bathroom fixtures and lights. Baths and sinks etc. should be white, and tiles should follow suit, with maybe a small feature. Avoid coloured tiles. Maybe put a feature in the master bedroom like red to give impact, and stand out from the neutral colours throughout the house. A white kitchen with black or white tops keeps everything flowing, and makes the place look spacious, bright and clean. This always gives buyers the wow factor!

What’s the best renovation you’ve been involved in?

The best renovation I have been involved in was renovating a snooker club. We decorated throughout, retiled toilets, put in a new American oak bar, made disabled ramps, chopped up rooms with false walls, and installed new lighting and suspended ceilings throughout. Looked amazing!

Check out our gallery

Sold 1st Home open Butler Perth This house in Butler had a lot of damage to walls, doors and doorframes. It needed a lot of preparation and rubbing down to bring up to a new standard. The skirting was all on but had never been painted, so we gapped filled undercoated and gloss all skirting. […]

Check out our gallery

House Painting Floret Perth This was a small painting job were we painted the ceilings in the master bedroom WIR and onsuite. we then undercoated and glossed the doors and frames and skirtings. With the walls there was quite a few cracks so we filled and applied two coats of Dulux wash and wear super […]

Check out our gallery

Need To Rent Your House In Perth. Are you finding it hard to rent your house in Perth, we may have the answer. The house we have just painted in Wanneroo was very tired looking and had been rented out for quite a while. It needed a complete face lift to freshen it up for […]

Check out our gallery

Interior Painting Butler Perth. With this repaint we attacked the family meals kitchen hallway & theatre. we changed the colour of the walls and painted all the doors frames and skirtings in a high gloss white. Here are the before pictures: Here are the after pictures: The new colour scheme of the blue grey with […]

Check out our gallery

Commercial Restaurant Painting Hillarys This restaurant in Hillary’s Perth is brand new. They wanted the concrete ceilings and ducting and pipework painted matt black. The look they are after is the industrial look. We started out by masking all area’s that were not to be sprayed, then proceeded to apply the primer. The last bit […]

Check out our gallery

Exterior Wall Painting Landsdale. The job at Landsdale Perth involved painting all the feature walls only at the front of the house and the back. We applied two coats of Dulux weathershield paint for a great finish. Here are the before pictures: You can see it is a bit weathered and a strong orange […]

Check out our gallery

House painting Alexander Heights Perth. This was a repaint of the family meals kitchen ceilings and walls to this painting job at Alexander Heights. There used to be a pot belly flu going through ceiling and wall cupboards in the kitchen they were taken out and ceiling repaired. After repairs: After the ceiling had been […]

Check out our gallery

House Painting Mount Lawley Perth This house had new ceilings and cornice put up which we spray sealed and painted white. one of the windows had to be repaired by putting in new cord to the weight so that they could slide up and down again. my glazier john came in to replace an old broken pain of […]

Check out our gallery

Paint A Kitchen In Clarkson We painted this kitchen white it was quite a hard one to paint, very dark. Here are the before pictures : As you can see it was a very dark kitchen to paint. Here are the after picture’s in a high gloss white : Looks good!! Contact Us for a […]

Check out our gallery

Kitchen Painting Clarkson Perth This kitchen in Clarkson Perth was a green colour and needed an update. So we applied a great product from Dulux to prime all the doors and frames including the draws. Here are the before pictures. We then proceeded to rub them down with 240 sandpaper and add the top coats […]

Check out our gallery

Commercial Painting In West Perth This commercial window painting job in west Perth was in a very bad condition as you can see from the photo’s. They needed a good rub down and a reputty before the primer was added. Then we put two top coats on to seal the window and bring it back […]

Check out our gallery

New House Painting In Landsdale Perth This painting job in Landsdale Perth was a complete paint in and out from a brand new build. We galvo linked all the frames first to stop chipping of the paint work then sprayed on the undercoat. we then hand glossed all the doors and frames. The ceilings we […]

Check out our gallery

Interior House Painting In Tapping Perth This painting job involved filling the walls to give them a blank canvas, so they could put back what they wanted too. we changed the colour scheme to white doors and frames, skirting’s. White walls and a grey feature wall for the theatre screen to sit on. Having the […]

Check out our gallery

Commercial Painting At Ikea This Commercial painting job involved working out of hours, we worked on the painting on night shift. We filled the walls and painted two coats of Dulux super hide to all the downstairs toilets, the upstairs toilets and the disabled. They were completely upgraded and freshly painted. With the painting finished Ikea Perth now has a more modern looking […]

Check out our gallery

Interior Painting In Kinross Perth This painting job at Kinross went very smoothly, we repainted all the walls, doors and frames,skirting’s and dado rail. we applied two coats of Dulux wash and wear, done minor patching. Undercoated and glossed all the doors frames and timber work. Take a look at these pictures of the finished […]

Check out our gallery

Exterior Varnishing In kelmscott The outside windows and doors hadn’t been varnished for a few years, luckily we got there just in time to get them back to new looking. We rubbed all the windows and doors down using a fine sandpaper. The windows that needed it were reputed. The product we used was SIKKENS CETOL FILTER […]

Check out our gallery

Interior Painting In Clarkson This house in Clarkson Perth had been rented for a few years. we went in and filled were needed. Then blocked out the strong feature walls and went through with one colour using Dulux paint. we then touched up the doors and frames. The doors and frames were then finished in […]

Check out our gallery

Painting Exterior Gutters & Fascia This house in Heathridge Perth had not been painted for ten years. The gutters and fascia were in good condition but the sun had completely bleached the colour out, leaving a powdery residue. These are the exterior before pictures. These are the finished painting pictures. We basically rubbed down all […]

Check out our gallery

Painting Job In Dianella Perth This double storey house in Dianella Perth is approximately six years old. We started by going through and patching all the cracks and damage, the house had been tenanted for all that time. These are the before pictures and as you can see there was a lot of patching. How […]

Check out our gallery

Undercoat And Gloss Doors And Frames Hi with this painting job we had to bring the old tired doors and frames back to life. The frames were badly chipped and most of the doors were marked, we spotted in the chips before we undercoated and glossed the frames. We undercoated and glossed them white in […]

Check out our gallery

Repaint Two Storey house In Mullaloo. This house in mullaloo needed to be painted throughout the interior, so that it could be put up for sale. we painted all the ceilings and walls, primed all the jarrah skirting s and frames white then undercoated and glossed white. The whole interior had a painting face lift. […]

Check out our gallery

Commercial Painting At Ikea Perth We have just finished a commercial painting job of the ikea offices in Osbourne Park. There were a couple of walls we had to strip off the wallpaper and made good the walls. Then we stripped of the vinyl stickers and made good the walls. we then proceeded to paint […]

Check out our gallery

New House Painted In Ellenbrook We painted this new house of walls in Ellenbrook Perth. we started with a coat of oil sealer to all the walls. Then we patched and rubbed down the plaster. Then applied two coats of Dulux wash and wear hogs bristle 50% to all the walls. This neutral colour matched the […]

Check out our gallery

Commercial Office Repaint Ready To Lease This Office in Malaga is leased by Realmark Commercial it just needed a freshen up ready to be occupied. I think it looks great now. If you need your offices freshen up ready for lease or sale then contact us we can get the job done at a […]

Check out our gallery

Exterior Repaint In Landsdale Perth This house in Landsdale Perth had a few problems, the render was very weathered so we had to rake out the cracks and fill with exterior filler. There was a lot of hazing to the render around the front porch. We used Dulux Weathershield and applied two coats to bring […]

Check out our gallery

New House Painting Landsdale Perth This new house at Landsdale was very well built the plastering was the best we have seen for a while. All of the walls had oil sealer applied. Then we gave the walls a light rub down and proceeded to apply the first coat. After the first coat was applied […]

Check out our gallery

New Wall Painting In Piara Waters We have just finished another new house at piara waters Perth. we went through and put on one coat of oil sealer to all the walls and then applied two coats of Dulux wash and wear for the finish. looks great another painting job in Perth complete. These are the […]

Check out our gallery

House Painting Ocean Reef Perth This house in Ocean reef Perth was rented. We went in and painted all the walls inside and touched up a few ceilings to make it ready for sale. But the biggest transformation was painting the exterior of the property, it looked great once it was all finished. Now its […]

Check out our gallery

Commercial Painting Hay Street Perth This commercial paint job come up great. The offices and exterior were a bit tired and needed freshening up. We painted all the internal walls of the three floors of offices. we also painted the whole front and side Exterior of this Commercial Building, including the underground parking area. These […]

Check out our gallery

New Wall Painting Piara Waters New house Painting Of New walls In Piara Waters Perth. we started with a coat of oil sealer. Then patched some of the walls. Then applied two coats of Dulux wash and wear throughout the house to all walls and cupboard walls. These are the new walls finished photo’s. First […]

Check out our gallery

Older House Painting Cottasloe Perth This house in Cottasloe Perth was great to paint. it had lots of old features like Georgian windows, plaster moldings to the ceilings and high skirting. The owner left the house to us for two weeks and cleared the furniture, this give us the room we needed to complete the […]

Check out our gallery

Laundry Renovation Kinross Perth we started this laundry renovation in Kinross by ripping out all the cupboards. Then we pulled off all the old tiles and floor screed. Then our plumber glen first fixed the pipework and put it in place ready for tiling. Mel our tiler done a great job in laying the new […]

Check out our gallery

House Painting In Cottasloe Perth. This house in Cottasloe Perth had a new double storey extension put on at the back by nexus home improvements. we started this interior painting job by painting the new two storey extension first as the clients had young children. Once the extension was completely painted we pulled away from […]

Check out our gallery

Exterior painting in Subiaco Another quality painting job By Colour Perfect Decorating. This exterior house painting job was a little harder the it looked we had to re-putty the windows and add new window beads were they were rotten. The walls were in a terrible condition with the paint flaking every were, so we had […]

Check out our gallery

Check out our gallery

Colour perfect Decorating House painting in Mindarie Perth. Part of the entrance of a two storey house we painted in Mindarie. We painted the whole interior of the house, and brought it back to life. we are Perth’s house painters, we love doing a quality job.

Check out our gallery

Keeping your home clean and tidy while we work We always make sure that your house is treated with respect and cover every were we are working in dust sheets. Were there are electrical items like tvs etc we cover with plastic sheets.